FELLOWS AND INTERNS SYMPOSIUMstri-sites.si.edu/announcement/Symposium_Abstracts_2019.pdf · 2019-02-20 · video creation tips for scientists, a leadership skills presentation and

FELLOWS AND INTERNS SYMPOSIUM | FEBRUARY 17TH, 2017FELLOWS AND INTERNS SYMPOSIUM | FEBRUARY 22, 2019

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For the past nine years, the Fellows Symposium at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute has served as a knowledge exchange platform, a place where the bright and diverse community of students doing research in the Panamanian tropics gets to unveil its discoveries.

Over the next two days, the entire STRI community will come together in the Tupper auditorium to share what they have in common: their natural curiosity and their passion for science.

This symposium will offer a rich program of talks and poster presentations by fellows and interns, as well as several complementary activities, including video creation tips for scientists, a leadership skills presentation and new ways to combine art and science. The winners of our 4th Fellows’ Photography and Video Contest will be announced.

STRI invests more than $3 million every year to support creative young researchers at critical stages in their careers, allowing them to explore their own research questions across Panama’s rich tropical ecosystems, while collaborating with scientists from around the world.

We hope these opportunities lead to new and exciting research projects at STRI or beyond, ultimately inspiring a prominent and fruitful career in science.

TALKS

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AM9:15 Chris Madsen 9:30 KC (Kathryn) Clark 9:45 Jennifer Acevedo Gil 10:00 Mariana Muñoz-Romo

10:15 Chris Smith-Martin 10:45 | BREAK10:45 Carlos De Gracia

11:00 Carolina Concha

11:15 Nicole Smith-Guzmán

11:30 Holly Sweat

11:45 Gloria Gessinger

PM1:30 Eva Arroyo

1:45 Korina Valencia 2:00 Andrew Nottingham 2:15 Ummat Somjee

2:30 Sharon Martinson 3:00 Callum Kingwell

3:15 Marjorie Dixon

3:30 Monica Carvalho

3:45 Friederike Clever

4:00 Jay Falk

FELLOWS AND INTERNS SYMPOSIUM | TALKS

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FELLOWS AND INTERNS SYMPOSIUM | FEBRUARY 17TH, 2017


Potvin and Gotelli (2007) showed that forest plots with greater species richness produced higher plot-level basal area (i.e. amount of wood) (+30-58%) than monoculture plots, and that interactions between neighbour trees affected tree growth and mortality rates. Research of root-system interactions has been limited due to demanding logistics, so comparisons of above- and below-ground interactions remains scarce. To address this knowledge gap, the present work analyzes the effects of species identity, plot species richness, and the relative mean height of immediate neighbours on crown area, root-system traits, and a combination of crown and root-system traits. Key results include the: strong suppressing effect of high mean height of nearest neighbours on target tree growth; dominance of Anacardium excelsum in root and crown extent; greater crown extent of Hura crepitans in monoculture, and greater crown and root extent of Luehea seemannii in species mixtures; importance of water availability in determining growth rates.

A comparison of crown and root-system extent of 5 tropical tree species in the context of a planted forest diversity experimentPredocMcGill UniveristyAdvisor: Potvin

Chris Madsen

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FEBRUARY 22, 2019

Along with global warming comes modifications to the carbon cycle. River carbon cycling is a natural process which transports eroded soil from the landscape. It is important to understand this part of the carbon cycle and examine how different land-uses impact this process. In the Panama Canal Watershed there is an ecosystems project to reforest pasture lands. The aim is to improve the reliability of fresh water feeding the canal, and to reduce sedimentation of the canal and its lakes. In the Agua Salud Project there are several monitored catchments with different land-use types, such as pasture and secondary forest. My research focus is to assess how the carbon cycle changes when pasture lands are reforested. To do this I collect river water samples during storm events when river suspended sediment was high, analyse them for carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, and identify differences between the land-use types.

Changes in the carbon cycle measured in river particulate organic carbon when pasture lands are reforested

Postdoc University of OxfordAdvisor: Stallard

KC (Kathryn) Clark

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The importance of this study is to communicate to the general audience the importance of microalgae. Microalgae are the future they have so many usages from renewable energy, to food, fertilizer, food stock. This study is important because will teach many audiences from Spanish to English speaker and to even public disability since multisensory learning will be used to educate about microalgae. By understanding the importance of microalgae, the public will also learn how to help them by understanding the different stressors they may be expose to. This study is not only outreach and educational, but scientific since I will be collecting samples through the Panama Canal. I will be collecting data that will be useful for the diversity of microalgae and to understand if any species can live all three of these aquatic ecosystems. Also due to the uniqueness of the Canal an objective will be evaluate the deviation of an ecosystem of the ecological quality expected, in the absence of the anthropogenic contribution.

The invisible story of microalgae

InternFlorida International UniversityAdvisor: Collin

Jennifer Gil Acevedo

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FEBRUARY 22, 2019

Chemical signals can be sexually dimorphic, usually with stronger odors in males than in females. Such chemical signals can be especially useful for nocturnal mammals. Odor profiles of male mammals have been shown to convey reliable information on specific health status and overall individual quality. The odorous crust recently described on the forearms of adult male fringe-lipped bats, Trachops cirrhosus, is an elaborated trait created by sexually mature males via a complex series of stereotypical behaviors. My research investigates this fascinating male strategy to attract females and reproduce. In this talk, I will reveal new information about crust formation, development, and size as a function of male reproductive condition. I will discuss recent results on the relationship between crust properties, male testosterone levels, and female estrous condition. Results from this study are important contributions to the understanding of a complex, chemically mediated mating strategy that will allow us to compare and understand other odorous reproductive models in Neotropical bats, and across mammals more generally.

Exploring the biological significance of male crusts of the fringe-lipped bat, Trachops cirrhosus (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae)

PostdocUniversidad de Los AndesAdvisor: Page

Mariana Muñoz-Romo

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Plant mortality is influenced greatly by drought events and global climate change is currently altering large-scale drought patterns, with severe consequences for terrestrial photosynthesis and carbon uptake and storage at the global scale. When plants colonized land hundreds of millions of years ago, they faced many challenges including surviving desiccation and transporting water to their leaves to sustain photosynthesis, which lead to the evolution of an intricate but delicate “plumbing system” of xylem conduits. When water evaporates out of the pores of leaves, water is pulled out of the soil and up through the xylem. However, liquid water under this level of tension exists in a metastable state. If there is little water in the soil, the tension on the xylem water column can become so high that it causes the water to change from liquid to gas creating bubbles that lead to embolized conduits. Xylem embolisms cause hydraulic disconnection between leaves and branches (hydraulic failure), which can lead to plant death. Xylem pit membranes (mesh of cellulose fibers), which restrict the spread of embolisms among xylem conduits, play an important role in drought resistance. The goal of my study was to predict vulnerability to drought of lianas and trees in a dry and a wet forest. I measured xylem vulnerability to embolism and pit membrane thickness of lianas and trees in a semi-deciduous dry forest and in an evergreen humid rainforest. I found that the species in the dry forest had thicker pit membranes than the ones in the humid forest. However, there was no difference in pit membrane thickness between lianas and trees within each forest. This is one of the first studies to measure pit membranes thickness in lianas and trees and suggests that thicker pit membranes are potentially permitting species in the dry forest to withstand greater water deficit and be more resistant to drought.

Determining the resistance of lianas and trees to drought using xylem pit membrane thickness

PredocUniversity of Minnesota-Twin CitiesAdvisor: Wright

Chris Smith-Martin

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FEBRUARY 22, 2019

Taxonomy of fossil billfishes (Istiophoridae) is considered problematic because the difficulty to find complete specimens and useful features to discriminate between different taxa. By applying multivariate imputation method for missed at random data (MAR) to rostral variables from modern specimens and analyze the result using PCA combining modern and fossil individuals is presented a new method for species identification using the rostrum. The findings increase the fossil record of istiophorids to 8 genera and about 13 species. Of these three new genera and two new species are being described. 9 species are extinct and 5 are present from the late Pliocene to the present. This new perception of fossil istiophorids demonstrates that they were more diverse than previously expected, this diversity could increase with futures research and the method have potential to be applied for other fossil groups.

The taxonomy of fossil billfishes (Istiophoridae) PredocCharles UniveristyAdvisor: Jaramillo

Carlos De Gracia

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The extraordinary morphological variation found in nature is achieved by a small number of highly conserved signaling pathways, which raises an important question. How does biodiversity arise from the sharing of a small number of constituents across a single tree of life? One explanation for this apparent paradox is that conserved regulatory genes evolve new “tricks” or roles during development. We capitalize on our recent discovery that the molecule WntA plays a prominent role in butterfly wing patterning to explore how signaling pathways evolve to generate highly convergent and divergent wing patterns within the neotropical butterfly Heliconius. The Heliconius radiation is best known for the extraordinary mimicry-related wing pattern diversity seen among its 48 species and hundreds of geographic variants– here repeated convergent and divergent evolution creates a colorful tapestry where distantly related species often look identical and closely related species or races of the same species can look strikingly different. CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis in 12 species demonstrates the remarkably flexible role that WntA plays in pattern variation across the radiation. WntA affects both color and pattern broadly across the fore and hindwing highlighting how fine-sale regulation of this signaling ligand can generate precise color pattern mimicry. However, the phenotypic effects of WntA knockouts in distantly related co-mimics are different indicating that wing pattern mimicry involves the independent evolution on new regulatory modules. Thus, a conserved WntA regulatory module in Heliconius does not obviously exist and new regulatory connections evolve rapidly both within and between species. This conclusion is consistent with on-going genotype x phenotype association studies and epigenetic profiling experiments in the two co-mimics H. erato and H. melpomene designed to identify the discrete regulatory regions controlling the spatio/temporal expression of WntA and determine how these elements give rise to a diverse array of wing color phenotypes across the genus.

Comparative knock-out of WntA across 14 mimetic and divergent Heliconius butterfliesPostdocUPMC Paris VIAdvisor: McMillan

Carolina Concha

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FEBRUARY 22, 2019

The appearance of external auditory exostoses archaeologically has been attributed to aquatic activities in middle latitudes. However, recent clinical research implicates low sea surface temperatures, especially below a threshold of 19°C, as a stronger predictor of ear exostosis development than latitude. Here I examine the frequency of external auditory exostoses in human remains from nine pre-Columbian archaeological sites in Panama, representing individuals from a warm, tropical region. Within a total sample of 125 adult individuals, exostoses were observed in seven males and one female. All individuals affected by this pathology were recovered from sites along the Gulf of Panama – a region characterized by intense cold water upwelling in the dry season. The results of this study suggest that external auditory exostoses affected individuals involved in habitual aquatic activities in the cold, upwelled waters of the Gulf of Panama. These activities appear to be almost exclusively dominated by male individuals. Ethnohistorical and archaeological records point to marine shell resource acquisition by deep-water diving as the activity driving exostosis development in pre-Columbian Panama.

External auditory exostoses in Pre-Columbian Panama and their association with diving activities in the Gulf of Panama

PostdocUniversity of ArkansasAdvisor: Cooke

Nicole Smith-Guzman

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Microbes, such as bacteria and diatoms, are ubiquitous components of benthic marine systems, mediating both initial recruitment and succession in communities of higher level organisms. This presentation will highlight projects that explore the role of microbes in fouling community development. To examine how microbial communities vary across marine habitats, benthic and planktonic microbes were sampled from reefs and mangroves in Coiba National Park, Veraguas Province, Panama. Metabarcoding of these assemblages via the 16S rRNA gene revealed different microbes between the water column and benthos, between habitats and among sites within each habitat. Photosynthetic microorganisms, including diatoms, were particularly abundant. These data are being coupled with morphological identification of the diatoms to provide greater taxonomic resolution. In addition to detailing results from Coiba, this talk will introduce ongoing surveys of fouling microbes and accompanying invertebrates at different latitudes, from Panama to the Eastern Shore of Virginia, USA.

Investigating the role of microbes in benthic community structure

PostdocFlorida Institute of TechnologyAdvisor: Torchin

Holly Sweat

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FEBRUARY 22, 2019

Animalivorous phyllostomid bats feed on a broad variety of prey animals ranging from small arthropods, like katydid and beetles, to small vertebrates, such as lizards and rodents. They forage in dense tropical forests and most of them are passive gleaners. Passive gleaners rely on prey-generated cues such as courtship songs and rustling sounds to detect, localize and classify their prey. Based on diet analyses the insectivorous phyllostomine Lonchorhina aurita is a moth specialist. Moths are rather difficult to catch in a passive gleaning mode because they do not vocalize and are often motionless when sitting on the vegetation. Therefore, we hypothesized that L. aurita catches moths in flight, using a so-called aerial hawking hunting style.We therefore observed the hunting behaviour of L. aurita in a flight cage offering free-flying and tethered moths. Flying bats spontaneously started to search for aerial prey and emitted calls composed of a quasi constant frequency (QCF) component at about 45 kHz followed by a short FM downward modulated sweep. Occasionally they used also pure QCF-calls without the terminal FM-component. During the approach to offered prey bats reduced pulse intervals (< 5 ms) and call duration (< 2 ms), and the approach always ended with a rapid succession of very short calls (feeding buzz). After successful captures most individuals ate their prey while still in flight. Only free-flying moths as well as tethered moths were attacked, while moths sitting motionless on the walls and ceiling of the flight cage were not approached. This echolocation and foraging behaviour is highly similar to that of bats from other aerial hawking bat families (e.g., Emballonuridae, Vespertilionidae) and indicates that L. aurita is an edge space aerial hunter, which represents a distinct evolutionary contrast to almost all other animalivorous phyllostomid bats.

Hunting moths within the forest: Lonchorhina aurita (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) catches aerial prey

PredocUniveristy of UlmAdvisor: Page

Gloria Gessinger

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Tree mortality is a major determinant of carbon flux differences across sites in tropical forests, yet remains poorly fit in many tropical forest models. Lianas are a distinguishing feature of tropical forests and previous studies have found decreased growth and increased tee mortality in areas with high liana abundance, resulting in changes in forest structure such as lower biomass and tree height in areas with high liana abundance. Despite their demonstrated impact on tree growth and mortality, lianas remain largely unincorporated in many forest carbon models. We investigate the percentage of large tree mortality that is attributable to lianas. We calculate the additional mortality due to lianas using a Bayesian Markov model applied to ten and twelve years, respectively, of 50 hectare plot data for Pasoh Forest in Malaysia and Barro Colorado Island in Panama. We find that 16-33% of large tree mortality is liana-attributable and that it is especially important to consider species responses to in liana infestation to find accurate measures of liana impact on tree communities. In addition, the percentage of liana-attributable tree mortality is higher on BCI than it is in Pasoh. Given this high percentage of liana-attributable tree mortality incorporating lianas in forest models is crucial in order to understand site and species differences in tree mortality and therefore carbon flux.

Percent of tree mortality attributable to lianas on Barro Colorado Island and Pasoh.

InternDuke University Advisor: Muller-Landau

Eva Arroyo

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FEBRUARY 22, 2019

Tropical dry forests (TDF) represent some of the most degraded and threatened ecosystems in the world, therefore being a priority for conservation. In Colombia, TDF are distributed across 6 regions, among which the valley of the Cauca river is the most affected by anthropogenic threats such as agriculture, cattle ranching and fire. One of the few remnants of these forests in this region is located in the Botanical Garden of Cali, with an extension of 14 ha, and 100 ha more that will be restored. The purpose of this research was to generate information that could contribute to the conservation and restoration of dry forests. Correspondingly, seed abundance and species diversity of the seed rain was compared across forests in three successional stages according to canopy height: intervened, intermediate, and conserved. In total, 92 seed morphotypes were found, from which 35 TDF species from 13 families were identified. 78% of the morphotypes were found in the conserved area. The Shannon and Margalef indexes indicated high diversity and specific richness for the conserved forest, while the intervened and intermediate forests were grouped together and characterized by low seed diversity and abundance. Fabaceae species showed greater dominance, with a total of 9 species, present mostly in the conserved area. Seeds of other intermediate pioneer species such as Acacia sp, Croton gossypiifolius and Guazuma ulmifolia were also abundant.

Seed rain in a Tropical Dry Forest across a successional gradient

InternIcesi UniversityAdvisor: Wright

Korina Valencia

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Climate warming predicted for the tropics in the coming century will result in average temperatures under which no closed canopy forest exists today. There is, therefore, great uncertainty associated with the direction and magnitude of feedbacks between tropical forests and our future climate – especially relating to the response of soil microbes and the third of global soil carbon contained in tropical forests. Here I describe SWELTR (Soil Warming Experiment in Lowland Tropical Rainforest), a soil warming experiment being undertaken on Barro Colorado Island, designed to improve our understanding of biogeochemical feedbacks to climate warming.

SWELTR (the heat is on)

PostdocAdvisor: Turner

Andrew Nottingham

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FEBRUARY 22, 2019

Horns in antelopes, tusks in elephants and antlers in deer are all examples of animal weapons. The largest and most exaggerated of these structures are often used in competition among males for mating opportunities with females. These large structures are predicted to be energetically expensive for animals to maintain and carry. Yet, the costs associated with the metabolic maintenance of these traits for individuals of different sizes remains a major gap in our understanding of positive size scaling. We examine an insect with enlarged hind legs used as weapons in male-male combat. We capitalize on the behavior of this insect, which autotomizes its sexually selected weapon (without regeneration), to isolate the metabolic rate associated with maintenance of these traits. Using flow-through respirometry we measure the aerobic cost of the weapon by measuring CO2 production rates before and after leg-autotomy. We find that larger males had proportionally larger weapons for their body size, and that larger males also had proportionally higher metabolic rates compared to females or to small males. A sexually selected weapon accounted for a large proportion of energy expenditure at rest, and metabolic enzyme assays reveal highly metabolically active tissue, suggestive of high metabolic maintenance costs of these weapons. These energetic maintenance costs remain a largely unexplored avenue to understand the forces that shape the positive size allometries of sexually selected weapons so ubiquitous in nature.

The hidden cost of sexually selected weapons

PostdocUniversity of FloridaAdvisor: Wcislo

Ummat Somjee

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Most sexually reproducing animals produce signals (often conspicuous ones) to attract mates. Finding a mate while simultaneously avoiding predation is a fundamental challenge for these animals, since signals can be intercepted by eavesdropping predators. This creates a crucible of selective pressure from mates for more conspicuous signals, and from predators for less conspicuous signals. How does conflicting selection pressure (from mates versus predators) contribute to variation in katydid signaling behavior, and ultimately, biodiversity? We address this question using the katydid community of Barro Colorado Island, where >100 species of katydid (Tettigonidae) which are hunted by a diverse suite of predators. Our preliminary results suggest that the animals that comprise this community have a wide diversity of morphological and ecological traits, and that there are a few different strategies that have evolved within the katydids for dealing with strong selection.

The song and dance of the night: life & death signaling in neotropical katydidsPostdocDartmouth CollegeAdvisor: Page

Sharon Martinson


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FEBRUARY 22, 2019

Queen pheromones (QPs) evolved independently in all highly eusocial insect lineages, and mitigate conflict over access to reproduction by inhibiting the ovarian development of workers. Despite their fundamental importance in regulating reproductive division of labor, the hallmark of eusociality, the evolutionary origins of QPs remain enigmatic. Chemical signaling of social dominance and fertility has been studied primarily in lineages with evolutionarily conserved and obligate eusociality, which are suitable for questions about current function but not evolutionary origins. We studied the cuticular and glandular chemistries of Megalopta genalis bees in Central Panamá, a population in which eusociality is facultative and whose tribe (Augochlorini) accounts for one of two relatively recent evolutionarily origins of eusociality in the family Halictidae. Solitary and social individuals, as well as reproductive and non-reproductive individuals, are readily distinguished by their chemical profiles. Two specific chemical classes largely underpin this separation. One, methyl-alkanes, are phylogenetically widespread and linked to reproductive state in many insect taxa. The other, macrocyclic lactones, are restricted to halictid, colletid, and andrenid bees. Combined analyses of chemical production and nest social behavior shows that these chemicals reliably indicate distinct axes of reproductive potential in Megalopta, and that social selection is likely to be an important factor affecting their production. Overall, our results suggest that QPs may evolve via social selection on reliable chemical cues whose physiological links to reproductive state may show deep phylogenetic conservation, but can also be taxonomically unique.

Chemical fertility signaling in a flexibly eusocial insect

PredocCornell UniveristyAdvisor: Wcislo

Callum Kingwell

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The jungle at night is filled with animals moving and calling for mates. Making noise, however, is risky because there is a large guild of bats, passive gleaners, that eavesdrop on the sounds made by their prey. Currently, we do not know how much bat predators influence different groups of nocturnal noise-makers or how eavesdropping gleaners may acoustically partition the night soundscape. In this study, we collected a standardized library of sounds from many of the major groups of night noise-makers: calls from frogs, geckos, katydids, crickets and cicadas, as well as rodent rustling and beetle flight sounds. We presented these sounds to different species of passive gleaning bats and observed their responses. With this method, we have identified a number of animal sounds that may be under selection from bats and have confirmed passive eavesdropping in a number of bat species.

The influence of bats on the nocturnal soundscapePredocUniversity of Texas at AustinAdvisor: Page

Marjorie Dixon

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FEBRUARY 22, 2019

Tropical South America has the highest plant diversity of any region in the world today. The origin and causal mechanisms that underlie this diversity remain an open question in evolutionary biology. Fossil floras from northern South America provide direct evidence of the timing of origin and diversification of Neotropical biomes, as well as their response to global perturbations in the geological past. Among these fossil floras are the Late Paleocene Cerrejón and Bogotá Floras, dating back to 58–60 million years ago, and considered to be the earliest known examples of Neotropical rainforests based on their paleoclimate, family-level taxonomic composition and comparable paleoecology with living rainforests. Even though these fossil floras have given a baseline for understanding the evolution of Neotropical rainforests throughout the Cenozoic, little is known about what kind of ecosystems and floristic associations existed in the Neotropics before this time. Using the pollen and leaf fossil record, we describe the floristic composition of Late Cretaceous forests in northern South America and evaluate the impact of the End-Cretaceous mass extinction on these early tropical forests.The continuous pollen record across the K/Pg boundary indicates drastic plant extinction at the end of the Cretaceous that is also reflected in Late Cretaceous and Late Paleocene leaf assemblages. Fossil leaves collected in four Late Cretaceous sites show that many extant tropical plant families such as Lauraceae, Arecaceae, Araceae, existed in the Late Cretaceous floras, these forests lacked the family-level composition typical of Late Paleocene and living Neotropical rainforests. Similarly, diverse and highly specific plant-insect associations seen in fossil leaf damage in the Late Cretaceous floras are replaced with distinct leaf damage traces in the Late Paleocene assemblages, indicating an ecological turnover. Plant extinction at the K/Pg boundary and the differences observed between the Late Cretaceous and Late Paleocene floras from northern South America indicate that the End-Cretaceous mass extinction could have enabled the evolution of Neotropical rainforests as we know them today.

Late Cretaceous floras from northern South America and the evolution of Neotropical rainforests

PostdocCornell University Advisor: Jaramillo

Monica Carvalho

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The extent to which coral reef fish species manage to expand or switch diet as a behavioural response to environmental changes remains poorly known. We use a DNA-based approach (metabarcoding) to link changes in fish diet and habitat quality across the Bahia Almirante of Bocas del Toro, Panama. Metabarcoding of gut contents of two invertebrate-feeding fish species representing different feeding strategies (Chaetodon capistratus, a browser and Hypoplectrus puella, an active predator) revealed dietary responses for both species to variation in coral cover but the response was much more pronounced for the browsing species. Our results indicate a behavioural switch from browsing towards active predation when adjusting to degraded environments that suggests negative consequences on fish fitness. This study refines our understanding of mechanisms of dietary niche alteration in coral reef fishes that are impacted by the degradation of their habitat.

Dietary versatility of coral reef fishes in response to habitat degradation

PredocManchester Metropolitan UniversityAdvisor: McMillan

Friederike Clever

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FEBRUARY 22, 2019

Multiple color morphs (polychromatisms) are common in males across animal taxa and are model systems for understanding variation in sexually selected signals. In contrast, female-limited polychromatism (FLP, multiple morphs in females but not males) is rare, and represents an evolutionary conundrum because theories typically used to explain ornamentation in males do not readily explain this observed variation in females. Many hummingbird species contain FLP, in which one female morph contains male-type plumage while a second morph is qualitatively different. Over four years, we captured white-necked jacobins (Florisuga mellivora) in Panama. Surprisingly, we found that juveniles of both male and females contain male-type ornamented plumage and that most females molt into drab plumage as adults. This pattern is completely reversed from the typical one seen in birds, and in animals in general. Our ongoing behavioral experiments are attempting to understand the selective forces shaping female coloration, and female fitness in general.

Females that look like males: exploring an unexplained pattern in hummingbirdsPredocCornell UniveristyAdvisor: Page

Jay Falk

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NOTES

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POSTERSBogumila Backiel Dayenari Caballero Karen Cardenas Jeison Chaparro Cardenas

Lee Dietterich 10:45 | BREAKEverlyn Gonzalez

Janitce Harwood

Sophie Holtz

Benjamin Honner

Kate Hunter

Peter Kerby -Miller

Ciara Kernan Krzysztof Kozak Sruthi Krishna Moorthy Parvathi

Verena Pfahler Maribel Pinto

Edgardo Rivera

Sheila Rodriguez

María Luisa Rodriguez

María Sanchez

Andrew Sellers

Martijn Slot

FELLOWS AND INTERNS SYMPOSIUM | POSTERS

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Predicting tropical forest aboveground biomass using tree crowns from drone imagery

Archaeological study in a rock shelter associated with pictographs and hunter-gatherers of the last 12200 years (Northwest Amazonia, Colombia)

The long-term history of neotropical vegetation told by the palynological record

Rheophilous bryophytes of a mountain river in the Colombian Andes.

InternUniversity of Massachusetts, AmherstAdvisor: Muller-Landau

STFUniversidad Nacional de ColombiaAdvisor: Sharpe

PostdocUniversidad Nacional Autonoma de MexicoAdvisor: Jaramillo

InternUniversidad Pedagogica y Tecnologica de ColombiaAdvisor: Jaramillo

Bogumila Backiel

Jeison Chaparro Cardenas

Dayenari Caballero

Karen Cardenas


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Chemistry of forest soil carbon pools across a rainfall gradient in Panama

Historia de vida y paleogeografía en peces teleósteos (actinopterygii) del Neógeno de América Tropical

¿Dónde anidan las abejas Megalopta genalis y M. amoena?

PostdocUCLAAdvisor: Turner

InternUniversidade Federal FluminenseAdvisor: Jaramillo

InternUniversity of PanamaAdvisor: Wcislo

Lee Dietterich

Everlyn Gonzalez

Janitce Harwood

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Vocal communication in the common big-eared bat, Micronycteris microtis

STFFreie Universität BerlinAdvisor: Page

Sophie Holtz

FEBRUARY 22, 2019

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Flexible signaling strategies in Neotropical katydids

Influence of habitat use on hind leg morphology of bat flies (Diptera: Streblidae) in Panama

Investigating mechanisms of life history tradeoffs in a socially flexible bee

Seasonal variation in tree diameter growth in a moist tropical forest

PredocDarmouth CollegeAdvisor: Page

InternUniversity of UlmAdvisor: Page

STFUtah State UniversityAdvisor: Wcislo

InternMiddlebury CollegeAdvisor: Muller-Landau

Ciara Kernan

Benjamin Honner

Kate Hunter

Peter Kerby-Miller


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Statistical cartography maps out the roads to convergence in butterflies

Impact of liana load on the tree crown structure

Elucidating phosphorus cycling in a tropical rainforest by using the δ18OP

PostdocAdvisor: Page

PredocGhent UniversityAdvisor: Muller-Landau

PostdocETH ZurichAdvisor: Turner

Krzysztof Kozak

Sruthi Krishna Moorthy Parvathi

Verena Pfahler

16How frequently do barnacles reproduce?

InternUniversidad Marítima de PanamáAdvisor: Collin

Maribel Pinto

FEBRUARY 22, 2019

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¿Afectan los parámetros fisicoquímicos la abundancia de invertebrados en el bentos marino?

The evolution of color and pattern expression of Heliconius wings through the eyes of development

Phylogeography of the Cuban endemic fish Limia vittata (Guichenot, 1853) (Cyprinodontiformes: Poeciliidae)

Aplicación colorimetrica para la estimación del contenido de potasio en suelos tropicales

InternUniversity of PanamaAdvisor: Collin

PredocUniversity of Puerto RicoAdvisor: McMillan

STFInstituto de Ciencias del MarAdvisor: Lessios

InternUniversity of PanamaAdvisor: Turner

María Sanchez

Edgardo Rivera

Sheila Rodriguez

María Luisa Rodriguez


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Tropical upwelling events weaken herbivore effects on tropical rocky shores

The effects of warming on the performance of tropical trees

PredocMcGill UniversityAdvisor: Torchin

PostdocUniversity of FloridaAdvisor: Winter

Andrew Sellers

Martijn Slot

FEBRUARY 22, 2019

stri.si.edu SmithsonianPanama Stri_panama

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FELLOWS AND INTERNS SYMPOSIUMstri-sites.si.edu/announcement/Symposium_Abstracts_2019.pdf · 2019-02-20 · video creation tips for scientists, a leadership skills presentation and